I want to talk more about the Steam Next Fest because I played a demo that actually didn’t completely frustrate the fuck out of me (yes, I know that’s damning with faint praise, but I’m just happy that I could actually play it and that I enjoyed it more than it frustrated me).
Before I get to that, though, there was another layoff in the industry, and it’s one that hurt personally. Briefly, IGN bought Eurogamer in May, 2024. Once they did, the changes were immediate and obvious. Obviously, I don’t know anything about what happened in the background, but from a fan’s perspective, it really sucked.
Now, let me back up a bit more than that. I only cared about the video side of Eurogamer. I started watching when it was Johnny Chiodini, Aoife Wilson, Ian Higton, and Chris Bratt. I hung through it when Chris Bratt left. They added another member for a bit, but she did not work out. Then Then Johnny left. Did they leave while the other member was there? I’m not sure. Anyway, Zoe Delahunty-Light joined the team. I’m not going to lie. I struggled with her at first, but then I came to appreciate what she brought to the team. It was Aoife, Ian, and Zoe for quite a while, and it was good. Then, Aoife left to work for Larian Studios. Ian and Zoe held it down while bringing in occasional freelancer. One of them was Jim Trinca, and he eventually became the third fulltime member. This was in October of 2024 (so Google tells me). I stopped watching for the most part once Aoife left, but I always wanted them to do well.
Side note: Huh. Apparently, there was a fourth person added later–Alix. I can’t find out who that is in my light research, so I’m just going to leave it at that.
Fast-forward to two days ago. IGN announced that they had cut the whole Eurogamer video team. Even though I hadn’t watched them in quite some time, and the industry is littered with layoffs left and right, it still hit hard. I don’t know if it’s because I’m nostalgic for the days I used to watch them on the regular or what, but it really bothered me.
I mean, obviously, it’s terrible that they lost their jobs. I don’t want to undercut that point. It’s awful, and I really feel for them. Especially Ian as he’s been there from the start. It’s a grim time in the games industry, and I honestly don’t know how anyone does it. I understand why anyone who is a games journalist would find a different job.
Back to the Steam Next Fest. It seems almost hollow talking about it in light of the news I previously mentioned, but there’s no way to not make it awkward.
I finally played a demo of a game that I then put on my wishlist. Hm. I was going to say what it was, but I’m not sure I’m going to do that. Why? Because I don’t like to be negative about a game before I’ve even played it. Ok, I have done that in the past, but that’s the rule I made up for myself right now. I’ll review it when/if I play the actual game.
I will talk about what I liked and didn’t like about it, though. It was a mystery hidden object game. There have been plenty of those on the casual game side, but it was usually solving the mystery through playing the game.
This is different in that the hidden object part was separated from the solving the mystery part. In the demo, there were only two cases. In the first, you found the items. Supposedly, they were supposed to give you clues about mystery, but given that you could randomize and play the hidden object scenes again, I don’t think there was a direct correlation between the items and the clues. Then, once you find the objects, you can go to the suspect board.
Actually, you don’t have to wait that long. At least not after making one guess. You can just go back to guessing again. Well, go through a few screens and then you’re allowed to guess again. We’ll get to that part in a bit.
The hidden object part of the game is…fine. I like the art style. I like that they didn’t just throw the obects around willy-nilly. What I did not like is that they put them halfway behind other objects as a way to hide them. I think that’s cheating in a way.
I also didn’t like that there was an object that I was supposed to click on, but I could not. That’s a bug, though, I think. This game allowed me to magnify so I could see things more closely. This has become a very popular aspect of hidden object games (HOGs)–being able to magnify snippets of the game so that you can look over everything very minutely.
I don’t know if this is controversial or not, but I don’t like it. I mean, I understand why they do it. I appreciate being able to go deep if need be, but I don’t think it need be. What I mean is *puts on old people glasses and stares down sternly over them* in my day, they made HOGs thoughtfully so that you had to search for the items, but they were placed in a way that you could actually find them in you looked hard enough.
Now, the rage seems to be just throwing hundreds of items in a scene and the difficulty is more separating the wheat from the chaff than actually finding items. It’s hard to explain the difference exactly, but in the former, there’s an art to it And they really tried to hide the items by blending them into the background.
Now, it’s just visual noise. Again, it’s not really hiding the objects; it’s obscuring them. And, it’s boring. Yeah, I said it. I’ll say it again. It’s also frustrating because my eyesight isn’t what it used to be (and it never was very good).
I really want a good HOG. I enjoyed them in my pre-‘hard’ game days, and I would love to see a good one again. I have tried them occasionally over at Big Fish Games, but they are so samey-samey that I just can’t with them. It’s always your sister/niece/daughter (usually a female relative) who is kidnapped/taken away. Then, you have to go to rescue her, usually by magical means. I am not against fantasy settings. Believe me, I love them! but don’t need to be in every game.
I’ll keep scanning the Steam next Fest, which goes on for a few more days, but I’m not holding out hope that I’ll find something that excites me.